It is the unfortunate truth that many small businesses fail and so many times before they have even had a chance to start!
Our industry is no exception. Throughout my years of consulting….I have found that a lack of leadership can be one of the main reasons that fitness businesses struggle.

I have always said that exceptional leadership is the MOST important factor in creating a successful business. Leadership is a skill that you may have naturally or you may have to learn, but it is always a skill that you can hone.

Here we are at week 4 of our 5 week series on Overcoming Obstacles & Excuses.
Remember, knowing how to get your clients or potential clients past these road blocks will keep them coming back for more. It is your job to ensure that they stick to the plan!

My knees hurt so I can’t exerciseThe health benefits of exercise often outweigh the risks. Certain conditions may make exercise more difficult but a good trainer can work around most problems. Consult with a health professional who can help you design a program that addresses your client’s specific concerns. For example, if a client is suffering from a knee injury, there is no reason why you can’t work on their upper body and abdominals while they are rehabilitating their knees.

I can’t see any resultsOne of the biggest hurdles new exercisers face is that the effort often does not match the result. They have been exercising for five weeks and jump up on the scale. Ugh, no change! They feel the program must not be working and give up. Unrealistic expectations can be a real downer. Convince your clients to stay off the scale. Monitor how many more repetitions your clients can do of a particular exercise. Read more on Overcoming Obstacles & Excuses – Week 4…

I know that you have heard these excuses from your clients before. Read this week’s addition to my series on helping your clients overcome obstacles and excuses.

Getting your clients past these excuses can be the key to getting them to invest in your services!

I Hate exerciseIn the beginning, exercise may feel like a chore to your clients but eventually it will become a physical and mental health need. It is important to find activities your clients enjoy doing so that they will participate in them regularly, see the results and get hooked. Have your clients use music, try hiking or walking and add variety to their program to make it more fun. Have them exercise with friends. Studies show you tend to achieve better results that way because it will become more difficult to skip workouts. There is also no evidence to suggest that exercise needs to be painful. If it hurts that much, your clients may be doing too much, too soon. While exercising, they may feel some discomfort, muscular fatigue or a burning sensation near the end of a set or an exercise bout. These feelings are normal. However, while performing an exercise, they should not feel sharp pain. This is not normal and they should stop the exercise immediately and consult a sports physician or physiotherapist. All of us have experienced muscle soreness after a new activity or highly intense workout. Remember the feeling after your first day of skiing, first aerobics class or the first run of the summer? This sensation is referred to as delayed onset muscle soreness because it usually takes one to three days after the workout to kick in. Many participants rate the effectiveness of a workout by how sore they are afterwards. But it you are training appropriately, there is no need to be sore. It is okay to think “Hey, my muscles feel like they had a great workout yesterday.” However, if your clients have a problem getting out of a chair, walking, or even just moving, they are training too hard – and not very sensibly. Read more on Overcoming Obstacles And Excuses – Week 3…

Last night I was helping Brianna with a project and checking her homework that was due today. As I was going through her work, it became very obvious that she put in the bare minimum and didn’t check her work because there were so many errors. So I was trying to explain to her at the young age of 10, the importance of always doing your best. I was explaining to her that you have to always do more than what is expected to impress your teacher, your coach, your boss etc. Doing the bare minimum will never lead to great accomplishments or success in any area of life. Do more than what is necessary and great opportunities will come your way.

I always related to this quote throughout my entire working career. No matter what position I held…whether I was a waitress making really good tips and all my fellow co-workers asking “How do you make such good tips?” I always thought it was so interesting that they didn’t relate to the fact that if you just bend over backwards, be extra special nice, really do whatever you could to take care of your customers’ needs, they would tip really well. Some people just didn’t get it. Once I entered the fitness industry, I would write articles for free, present complimentary seminars around the community, attend so many workshops and conferences, read as much as I could to advance my career….and as a result, my career advanced and so many incredible opportunities would be presented to me. In the beginning I had to work hard to find opportunities and recruit new clients, but then opportunities started to find me and clients started to track me down. Some might say, “Wow, you’re so lucky. You get all the good breaks.” But I couldn’t disagree more. I believe that the key to success in anything that you want in your life is “Knowing what you want and willing to do whatever it takes to get it.” Now life is a lot easier for me professionally. I don’t have to work as hard as I did when I first started my career 24 years ago. It’s the whole adage “Short term pain for long term gain”. I’m sure those of you who have been doing this for a long time can attest to what I’m saying. Those of you new to your career, put your time in and you will reap the benefits. Trust me, it works!

Health and fitness lectures offer a wonderful opportunity to educate your clients about important topics. We believe that Education + Action = Results so we value offering education to our clients and then, inspire and guide them to take action, therefore, producing fabulous results! You can’t do better if you don’t KNOW better!